Sunday, August 12, 2007

Undiscovered Gems 2 Day 3

Clan Apis is a wonderful book for two reasons. In the first place it fulfills all the typical demands of storytelling. It's funny, exciting, interesting, and emotive. You'll laugh. You'll cry. Et cetera. In the second place, Clan Apis does something amazing. It actually comes off as a work of non-fiction, explicating and illustrating the secret lives of bees. And doesn't bore the reader into giving up partway through. I had read the back cover on several visits to my local seller and put the book back on the shelf several times. It just didn't sound interesting. At last and after a great many months later, I decided to purchase it as I had already gone through most of the books my seller stocked. After that, it sat on my to-read pile for another month or two. Then I finally read it and was...surprised. I was engrossed. Jay Hosler had created something amazing and no one had told me. I've since read it multiple times and given it to my wife's students to enjoy as well. Good stuff!

And Joe Szilvagyi writes:

My recommendation for the undiscovered gems list is The Surrogates written by Rob Venditti with art by Brett Weldele published by Top Shelf. The writing paints an incredibly credible view of the future where people choose to experience life through surrogate androids that transmit all sensory information to the user. It manages to run through a crime story that explores the benefits and drawbacks of this technology without coming across as preachy or too technical. Best of all, the art is quite solid with well thought out colour schemes and dynamic compositions.

Thanks to Joe and The Dane for their recommendations; they've been entered into the drawing for The Best American Comics 2006, which will be awarded next Wednesday. There's still time for you to enter!